


Space Princess

by Grubbutts



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Escape, F/M, Feferi is a Mermaid, Fluff, Space Opera, Space Pirates, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 09:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20172124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grubbutts/pseuds/Grubbutts
Summary: Being a space pirate isn't so bad, but Dave knows they're hiding something. And he's going to find out just what it is.





	Space Princess

**Author's Note:**

> For the StriLonde zine!

The hull of the ship creeks around you, echoing each step with a thrum of the engine. Pipes drip with condensation, wires line along the walls thick and thin alike. You're not sure what half this shit does, and quite frankly you couldn't care less. 

You just want to go where they lead to.

The adults on board think they're being sneaky, but you know better. Bro is not half as good at concealing his emotions to you as he thinks he is. Try as he might to be cool, he's the most overdramatic man-child there ever was. When they first boarded that alien ship, you could practically *hear* the sheer joy in his voice for a fight. For some fucking *adventure.* 

Meanwhile you and the other support crew stayed behind to make sure the ship was ready to zoom the fuck away after plundering. It's not like you *wanted* to be apart of a gang of space pirates. Sure it's a romantic enough idea at first, but when you really get into it it's all full of bullshit. Who knew there were so many rules and so much bureaucracy to being a pirate? 

1) You must be 21 to hop ships (cowards)  
2) Every plundered item must be logged (who has time for that?)  
3) You must submit a Plunder-Request form to plunder (what's the point of being a pirate then?)  
4) Every death (friendly or unfriendly) must be catalogued (so much for lawless rebels)  
5) Please wipe clean the microwave after use (it's like we're suffocating here!)

And that's only the beginning of the 413 pages of the code of conduct in 8pt font, not to mention the sections on what to do with plundered stuff that match in size. 

What's that called again when you say a word so many times it's lost its meaning? Plunder is weird. Plunder plunder plunder.

You hum under your breath, "I come from the land down *plunder*~..." No, stop that, that was stupid. You're supposed to be quiet anyway right now.

Last mission involved something big being taken. Big enough to warrant a secret bigger than that. They've got some sort of treasure that Bro won't even tell you about (not that he tells you everything) and they've hid it off in an escape pod. It's been hells of sketchy all around, moreso than you'd usually suspect from these bureaucratic asshats. It's big and massive and secret and like hell you're not going to find out what it is. 

You get in trouble all the time anyway, it's not like you'll be spaced for snooping. Bro makes sure of that. 

CREEEEEEK

Fuck oh fuck. The grating sound of metal on metal scratches and tears through the walls and into your chest. You're pretty sure your heart literally stops for a moment. Are you being followed? Are they changing course? Did the oven handle break again? 

This ship makes too many damn noises.

You look behind to make sure and-- yeah you're fine. No one's following you. EZ PZ. You definitely didn't jump and almost piss your pants at an errant noise. It's whatever, it's fine, you're almost there anyway you think. 

The hallway is a little tight, built in the shape of a hexagon and not the most ventilated place in the ship. It's a corridor meant for robots carrying in supplies or easily getting to parts of the ship to repair. It wasn't easy getting in here, but you have your ways (those ways being following the roomba in here and slipping through the door before it could close). 

There's a distant humming that seems to get louder and louder, and a pale blue light that bounces off the metal walls towards what seems to be the end of the tunnel. More wires and pipes seem to burst through the walls, following in your direction, intrigued as well by whatever it is they're keeping secret. Just a little closer, just a few more steps. Easy does it.

Just a few…

You hold your breath.

Step…. Step…. *step*.

There's a grated hatch at the end, cool and sleek. It almost seems new. You pause, listening to see if anyone is in the room.

…

glub

…

Did you hear that? Is there a fish tank? Did they just get a pet fish or something and didn't wanna tell anyone because they wanted to hog all it's affections? That's batshit, you should get the affections. You open the hatch- you deserve those fishy affections!

Turns out the drop is higher than you anticipated, and you fall a few feet right on your ass. "Fuck!" You hiss. You'll be feeling that til tomorrow for sure. 

But before you can stand up and dust yourself off, your eyes meet a pair of yellow and pink ones. You hadn't really thought of that as a good color combo before, but it looks neat on that--

"Hoooollyy shit."

Well. Hm. Seems like they uh, did get a fish. A really big one. A really big lady one with Bright eyes and find and a legs AND a tail? And hair… and horns… and…. "Holy shit. What the fuck, what the fuck what the fuck." Are you yelling? Whispering? What the hell is this thing? She's pretty for one thing. Is it a she? Who… what… 

You're stunned in silence, having a stare off with this fish creature in her glass tank.

And then she smiles, wide and bright and beautiful and-- holy fucking shit those teeth are pointy. 

You scramble to your feet and step back. It seems like you two are the only things in this room. Pipes and tanks connect to her cylindrical cage. You're not sure why the word cage comes to you, but it does. 

You should really leave, this is way above your head. This would be beyond spacing. You'd probably be deleted from all the archives in the galaxy for even seeing her, you bet. 

She waves at you. Her hand is webbed.

You tentatively wave back.

This seems to overjoy her because she grins even more wildly and flips around in the water. Is there a way to open that thing? Can she breathe air? Is that water toxic? 

These are questions you should really be answering first while you climb up the ladder beside the glass cage, but like an idiot you don't. You're not even sure what your body is doing, you're just watching your hands go about fumbling with latches and buttons to find an opening of some kind on top (isn't it weird how your hands wash each other while you watch too? Like some kind of hand-washing voyeur).

It really should have been obvious that the big red button to the side was the one to open the hatch, but your hands are shaking and your heart's racing too fast that you're pretty sure your blood just forgot that your brain needed some of that O2 juice too. 

With a steady hiss, the lid begins to open automatically, and you're bathed in bright blue light. 

You look at her.

She looks at you.

You look at her.

She looks at you.

(Weird Al get out of your head) You wave at her.

She waves back and slowly swims up, gingerly breeching the surface of the water. Her mouth down is still under water, but her horns and eyes stick up in the air to look at you.

"Uh, hi?"

"Hi!" She rises to speak and her ears flutter. Holy fuck they *flutter*. Yes that's the part you focus on, not the fact that she understands and speaks your language.

"Uh, hm, yo what uh, what are you?"

"I'm a troll, dummy! Who the shell are you?"

That takes you back. "Was that a pun?"

"Mayb-sea." She winks at you. Wow…

"I'm a human, the names Dave. I'm the baddest mofo on this ship, even more higher up than a Captain. Commander Dave, yeah."

She laughs and it's beautiful. "That's not how shankings work! You're probably a guppy, huh? That's okay, guppies are always nicer anyway."

You're not sure whether to be flattered or insulted. "Thanks? Jeez. Alright alright, tit for tat- who are you?"

She bats her eyes all pretty and beams at you. "My name's Feferi. I was gonna be an empress but, well, whoops!" She really doesn't seem too beat up about it.

"So…" you lean against the edge of the cage, "An empress, huh? That's cool that's cool." Jesus Christ, they kidnapped an heiress? Yeah, yeah you'll be chopped to bits and pieces, spaced, and scrubbed of all existing records. Dave Strider will be no more, curiosity is going to kill you dead. 

You glance around the room. Still empty. Still quiet besides the creaking if the ship. This is… new. Is there a form for heiress-napping? They've never kidnapped anyone before, mostly pretended to use people as hostages and split ransom money with them (46 forms. 46 damn forms to do that, so they don't do it all that often). 

"Watchya sea?"

You turn back to her and your brows furrow. "Who brought you here?"

She tilts her head and shrugs, "Dunno!"

"You don't know?"

"There was a carp over this, I couldn't sea a thing."

"You really like your fish pins, huh."

"Gup!"

"Ridonkulous."

"Not as much as you Mr. Dave."

"Oh, is that so? Dunno about that, I'm cool as fuck."

She giggles, and you catch yourself smiling almost as wide as she is.

"You shore aboat that?" 

You stand back to flex your nonexistent biceps, "Look at these babies. Ain't nothin' that can- whoa!"

The world goes from arid to frigid freezing cold as you're pulled into the tank alongside Feferi. You flail and sputter and hold on tight to the edge, glaring at her like a wet cat.

She laughs at you, "Now you're cool!"

"Ha. Ha. Soooo funny. I'm laughing, this is my laughing face, look at me laugh. Ha." You huff.

"Awww did I fluster you?"

You bristle, "Maybe! A little!"

She swims up next to you, hiding the bottom half of her face again underwater. Then she softly taps your cheeks with the tips of her horns.

"What are you doing?"

She blows a few bubbles and bats her eyes, ears folding down. Oh….

"Is this an apology?"

She glances at you and blows a few more bubbles, this time more forcefully. 

You roll your eyes and sigh. "Is this an apolalgae?"

Feferi rises from the water with her wild grin and wraps her arms around your shoulders. "Yeah!" 

It's really hard to be mad at fish girl like her. And you find yourself wrapping your free arm around her waist. Your heart beats fast, and she's so so close. You've never met anyone or anything like her and… she's stuck in this cage. Just like you (albeit now literally but in a cool metaphorical way, this lifestyle is your cage).

She doesn't stop staring at you, and you blush and look away. "Hey uh… are you… okay?"

She tilts her head.

"Like, have you been threatened? Are you trapped or are they hurting you? If they are I'll fight them I fucking swear to God. I know they're a bunch of asshats but dammit if they've kidnapped you and are hurting you and trapping you in this thing. What the fuck even is going on? What the hell are they up to? Why would they take you--"

You taste an obscene amount of salt, yet with the amount of water it is still wildly refreshing. Plus the way she moves her lips against yours… 

Holy shit she's kissing you. You're kissing an alien mermaid fish girl who's gorgeous and funny and you just met her like 5 minutes ago. Before you can be sauce and kiss her real good, she pulls away.

"You're really cute when you get all concerned about me. No one's ever cared beshore. You're really kind Dave, I hope we sea more of each other." Her smile is softer now, not showing off her pointy teeth. And somehow that makes it all the more intense. It clutches at your chest in an icy cold grip. 

"Yeah well… no one's ever kissed me before." Your blush deepens. "Or wanted to hang around with me. Most people just…" you shrug. "I'm kind of a background character here. No matter how much I rant at Bro about this place, it seems like none of it ever matters."

A cool webbed hand presses against your cheek and you shudder as it pushes you to look at her. "Dave, I-"

WHIRRRR

ALERT!  
ALERT!

INTRUDER IN THE CARGO BAY!

ALERT!  
ALERT! 

CODE ORANGE, I REPEAT, CODE ORANGE!

The ships alarms flash all around and you hear the scurrying for feet rushing across the ship. Feferis eyes are wide open and she's staring at the door. You reach into the water and take her hand, holding on tight. "It'll be okay, the cargo bay is on the far side of the ship. We'll be safe here."

That is until the hissing of the automatic door opens. Feferi is frozen still while you duck under the water. Not that it'll help you hide much as the tank is made of glass, but it should be better that nothing. 

The door closes and you open your eyes and let them sting as you try to focus on who the fuck is about to kill you until-

You surface with a gasp, "Bro? What the fuck are you doing here?"

He's holding two duffle bags and frantically typing something into the panel. "Good, y'all met. Wondered when you'd finally sneak in here. Feferi that's Dave, Dave that's Feferi. Figured you two would get along, love birds."

Feferi squeezes your hand and smiles knowingly, and suddenly you feel so far out of the loop you're drifting off into space. "What are you talking about, what's going on?"

Feferi nudges you and giggles, "To answer your question, no I'm not trapped."

"What?"

Bro slams on the large EJECT button and the pod dislodges from the ship. He looks up at the two of you, smuggly crossing his arms. "We're getting the fuck out of here."


End file.
